Sunday, 10 July 2005

I’ve got the TV on. There’s this film called Firelight, with the wonderful Stephen Dillane and Lia Williams. Why, oh, why, is the heroine played by that dummy Sophie Marceau?

She’s a tête à claques (that’s French for someone you’d love to slap again and again and again until your hand burns) and she's my target today because there are numerous actresses who could have played that part so beautifully.

She looks sulky (I hate that) and she can’t act. She was dreadful in Braveheart; she’s dreadful in this too. Since I’ve never seen her in a French film I can’t tell whether her lack of acting talent in the films I mentioned stems from her speaking English: having to play a part in a foreign language (even if you’ve rehearsed it thoroughly) means that a big chunk of your brain is busy trying to control your tongue and you’ve got none left for the emoting, etc. I’m prepared to bet that she’s just as ghastly when she's using her mother tongue. At the time of Braveheart, she also spouted pretentious inanities in the UK newspapers – some real gems.

Oooh, just read on the Net that she was born Sophie Maupu. Maupu! Horrible sound. Blech!

8 comments:

I think you should start a discussion page (er - or a blog) where people suggest films they enjoyed but would have been better without X or Y, and other people try to recast them. Maybe with more minor actors instead of the 'essential box office name'?

Such as - what would some of the Hitchcock films have been like with a nice feisty brunette instead of his favourite blonde dolls? Or Moulin Rouge without Ewan and Nicole? I could go on...

LOL! I saved your blog to my favorites since we can't do the slap of the day over "there" anymore. Slap until your hands burn, huh? That's a good one. She must be might annoying (I've never seen Braveheart). I'll take your word for it. :-)

Yes, campaspe, it's a very useful phrase and I've always used it a lot. I'd never heard any Brit express a similar desire to slap annoying people until I read, not long ago, in a newspaper, "So and so has one of those faces you'd never tire of slapping. blah blah blah". I wonder whether the writer is fluent in French...